8 years ago today an unusual match was played at Goodison Park, the home Stadium of Everton. Everton played a pre-season friendly against Everton (no not the team b). The other Everton was from Chile.
Everton of England, that is, who beat Everton of Chile in the first meeting between the two clubs, the South American one being formed 101 years ago after the other one went on a tour of South America in 1909.
The first unusual feature of the evening was the scoreboard which read: "Everton 0, Everton 0" at kickoff and "Everton 2 Everton 0" at the end thanks to second-half goals from Jermaine Beckford, who headed home after 51 minutes, and Diniyar Bilyaletdinov who volleyed in 14 minutes later.
While both Evertons ran out to the familiar strains of the 1960s television police drama "Z-Cars", not many matches at Goodison have taken place against an incessant rhythm of South American drumbeats, whistles and bells from around 40 visiting fans in one corner of the ground.
The home Everton wore their traditional blue shirts and white shorts while the visitors changed their strip. Naturally their strip is blue and white as well, but they played in all-yellow.
The match itself was hugely entertaining and gave Everton their fifth successive pre-season victory and the background to the match is intriguing.
No comments:
Post a Comment